well, that's going to do it for us on "american morning." we'll be back here bright and early tomorrow. hope you have a great day. >> cnn newsroom starts with jim acosta right now. i'm jim acosta in for kyra phillips. here's what we are working on this labor day. a crackdown on craigslist. cnn showed you how the online service had become an area for prostitutes. we are also showing you the

american jihadist. he is likely to strike again. and women are making more money than their male counterparts? i don't like the sound of that. you are in the cnn newsroom. and we are grilling up some politics on this labor day. we begin counting down to the midterm elections. for the next 58 days we'll look at the rage building among american voters. many are angry and calling for big changes in washington. they'll have the chance to make those changes in the senate, 37 deets seats are up for grabs, and in the house, 435 seats up in all. there are signs of a voter rebellion in the work to give congress back to the republicans. those are the stakes on the line. and the cnn election express is on the road far outside the d.c. beltway. it is a good thing. we are talking to real people about what is driving them to the polls and what they think washington needs to hear. our first stop is pittsburgh. cnn's t.j. holmes is joining us

live. t.j. has a ticket on the election express. i have been on the bus, it is a sweet ride. t.j. is in pittsburgh, what's on the mind of voters out there in western pittsburgh, t.j.? >> reporter: you know, i think you said it best there, getting outside of washington, that being such a good thing because you get to hear a different mood, and you also get to hear what's exactly on people's minds instead of hearing politicians argue back and forth in washington all the time. we are here in western pennsylvania where they have some of the concerns as people around the rest of the country. we remember, of course, it is labor day. the unofficial end of summer. but the official begin of the campaign season. because this is labor day, a lot of people are grilling out and hanging with family. they are thankful they have the day off, but so many people wish they had work and have been off for the past days, weeks and months. out of a job right now,

employment will be number one on people's minds. take a listen, just a small sample of the people we have been running into here in pennsylvania. >> when you get a poll that suggests that 25% of people think their president is a muslim, obviously they are smart enough to know that is not true. and to me that says that people are operating out of emotions. >> i think they are totally out of touch on what goes on in rural america. >> i wish people would be more patient because it does take time to come out of the bad recession that we were in. >> so then you start taking pay cuts. how much money do they make a year is ridiculous for what little work they do and for how much vacation they have in the summer, it is unfair. >> i think the whole obama administration along with every member of congress should be voted out. >> i have gone back and forth between democrat and republican. at this point i'm in the air

with it. >> it is always going to be the same. >> it is always the same with politi politics. >> reporter: keep in hind mind here, this state over the past year, pennsylvania, has been below the national average in unemployment. that sounds like a good thing, but the problem is this state has gone up a full percentage point over the past year, and that's in the unemployment rate, while the nation's rate has been flat each and every month, so this state seems to be going in the wrong direction. we'll talk to folks here in pennsylvania. we are also heading to ohio, kentucky, indiana as well the next several days. as you know, the election express bus is on the road. we have john king, gloria borger, we are just getting started here, but a full week as we kickoff this campaign season. >> t.j., i was just listening to the comments from the voters you were talking to out there. did anybody talk about any issue

besides the economy or was it just the economy? it sounds like people are really focused on that issue this year. >> reporter: no, the economy will certainly be the number one thing you'll hear about. but certainly there's a little sprinkle of other things in there as well, including, yes, in fact, the mosque in new york, the proposed islamic center and mosque. you heard people talking about the issue and some people think president obama is a muslim. you have people talking about health care, afghanistan and ike. all the things are in there as you expect, but the first thing is going to be the economy. let me leave you with this note, when i started asking people about the biggest concern they have, it was the pittsburgh steelers' quarterback situation. ben roth police beggar is out for four games, so they are on quarterback four. after they got passed that, they were ready to talk politics. >> a little political football no less. t.j. holmes in pittsburgh for us.

a volatile mix talking to voters. thank you so much. good to see you. keep an eye on the cnn election express. t.j. said it will be on the road in four states this week carrying the best political team on television. check out this bus load right here. jessica yellin, john king, gloria bornler, dana bash and t.j. holmes. i don't think they are in the bus all at the same time. they all start this week in pittsburgh. tuesday the bus arrives in columbus, ohio. and then on wednesday, the cnn election express rolls across the ohio river into covington, kentucky. some exciting races down there as well. then on thursday, our team reports from indianapolis where there's also another crucial senate election. so the economy will drive many voters to the polls. their worries are showing up in the latest cnn research poll. eight in ten americans feel economic conditions right now are poor. 44% of the polls respondents blame the republicans for the mess. that's surprising. 35% say democratic policies got

us to this point. and 16% blame both parties equally. we are going through the poll numbers all day long here on cnn. : well, this week president obama will try to convince americans he's doing all he can to jump start the economy. he's planning to unveil initiatives, including tax cuts. our cnn white house correspondent ed henry has more on that. it also sounds like the president is talking about something that sounds like a stimulus, but i'm guessing they are not calling it that. >> reporter: you're right, jim. the first stimulus bill turned out the to be fairly in unpopular. we have so much debt that we cannot call it a second stimulus, but we have details about what the president is going to roll out this week. two big speeches, first in milwaukee today. the president we are now learning will be rolling out a

$50 billion infrastructure plan specifically rebuilding 150,000 miles of road, construct about 4,000 miles of rail and rehabilitate about 150 miles of runways across the country. the president today is also going to lay out a new infrastructure bank whereas they hope to sort of leverage federal dollars better. there's so much transportation money flowing in. many different pots of money, not always flowing well, but they are looking to spend the money more wisely. on thursday the president will be in cleveland where he lays out a permanent extension of the tax cut, $100 billion for research and development for businesses. again, they are trying to target the money, so businesses will invest more of their own economies and hire more workers, et cetera. the challenge for this administration is we have heard this before, targeted tax credits as well as

infrastructure highway money. those wrl two ingredients in the administration that were key. it has not worked out exactly as planned, has not provided the jolt to the economy they originally advertised. some people may be hearing the details and say, look, we have heard this before, jim. >> as we hear the white house sell us not only all the original money from the stimulus we saw have been built. and so i guess i am just frustrated with how people are inside the white house. they are trying ideas that you mentioned in the first stimulus. >> reporter: i think there's quite a bit of frustration. there's been a whole series of late night meetings here at the white house. late one night last week i ran into secretary treasurer tim geithner. he has been here with the

sleeves rolled up. everything they have tried has not got us going. pointing out here, outside economists in the private sector say probably around 3.3 million jobs were saved or created by the stimulus, but the problem is the hole has been a lot deeper than they thought. it was 18, 19 months ago, so the 3 million jobs is sort of helpful but a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. and also in terms of the marketing of all this, the white house called this recovery summer. the fact of the matter is americans are not feeling a recovery. that's worse just two months before the midterms where the house and senate was up for grabs. >> ed henry at the white house, appreciate it. a five-story 500-ton piece of evidence is out of the deep and on the surface. you can see crews brought the

failed blowout preventer to the surface over the weekend and installed a new one. bp plans to complete a new relief well to interact with the broken well later this week. then they launch a bottom kill procedure to seal the whale for good. if you look for the adult section on craigslist, you won't find it anymore. that section has been shut down. there's a censored label where it used to be. cnn is helping to shine light. it is an east way to find prostitutes and they were urged to stop the service. it also encourages assaults on women. >> i'm very pleased by this very solid and significant apparent step in the right direction. i say apparent because we have received no definite or definitive word from craigslist itself that this shut down is permanent and complete, but it is certainly welcomed.

if it remains shut down, it will be a model for other sites, we hope, because craigslist is the biggest. its scope and scale are unmatched by any others. but the continuing battle needs to be fought. >> in fact. users who access the account outside the united states will find the link is still active. the chilean miners have spent a month trapped underground. no fresh air or freedom. but they are getting plenty of encouraging words from those who know a thing or two about survival. down in that part of the world, they have been talking to people trapped in the andes, the one who is had to save themselves after rescuers gave up. [ male announcer ] where are people with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis going? they're discovering the first self-injectable ra medicine

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all right. our morning passport begins in hr. quesonroun 99 lashes for appear in a photo without a head scarf, but her lawyer is contradicting the report. some suggest the scarf incident is a case of mistaken identity. in guatemala emergency service officials fear the death

toll could top 100 after heavy rains triggered deadly mudslides last week. and right now 37 people are dead and another 23 are missing. destruction to homes, farms and infrastructure is said to be widespread. people in christ church new zealand are recovering after a massive 7.1 earthquake struck. no deaths but two injuries were reported. in chile the 33 miners trapped in the hole for a month now are getting encouraging words from some folks you may not expect. from some of the most famous sir vooifrs on the planet. these were members of the uruguay and rugby team whose plane crashed in the indes. here's more.

>> reporter: the visitors came with a message. >> this is going to have a happy ending. >> reporter: they should know. the men are some of the surviving rugby team whose plane crashed in the mountains. they endured extreme conditions for 72 days. their story inspired the movie "alive." >> translator: our message is one of hope and kindness and that everything is possible if one fights to the end. a message well received by this woman whose brother is trapped in the mine. >> translator: it is very important people come from other countries to back us up. the miners need it. they are the ones inside. we are out here. >> reporter: to show their solidarity, they place their flags along the banners representing the miners. witnessing another desperate

rescue, the crash survivors feel a certain bond. >> translator: i understand what they are going through. i understand them completely. i feel a lot of things i felt on the mountain. >> translator: don't give up he tells louis entombed under hundreds of meters of rock, but able to talk with the miners. we hope to give you a hug later is a reply. an embrace between survivors that will now have to wait. and in a couple minutes we'll have another survival story for you, a boat load of adults and children trapped 25 miles off the coast of charleston. the coast guard spent hours looking for them with no luck and they finally got the break they needed with a little help

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the coast guard rescued seven people off the coast of south carolina. four adults and three children abandoned their sinking boat and spent 20 hours, yes, 20 hours in the water. luckily, they were all wearing life vests. the coast guard helicopter crew was on the final pass of what had been a six-hour search when a crew member spotted them in the moonlight. some of the survivors were clinging to a cooler. we talked with a member of the

rescue team. >> from what i could see, just obviously they are exhausted from being in the water that long. and the two boys had been stung by a jellyfish numerous times. other than that, as far as i could tell, they were just happy to be out of the water at that point. >> i bet they were happy. all seven were taken on to a south carolina hospital for evaluation and treatment. and reynolds wolf, turning to him now, we have a great labor day in store, but getting back to the coast guard, when you have been down in the gulf coast covering the oil spill for months, we have seen the great work the coast guard does down there, but that's amazing. they didn't give up and found the folks in the noon moonlight. >> go figure. it is a miracle. speaking of rough surf, leaving that story to this one, we have a new tropical system. it is hermine. wind at 45. gusts up to 50. you can see deep tropical

convection. you have the yucatan peninsula here. of course, the gulf of mexico here. and this thing is on the move. the thing is, where is this headed? the latest forecast we have from the national hurricane center brings it to the northwest. making our way to tuesday at 2:00 a.m., it may make landfall right in this area south of texas right into the mexican border. as it does so, it will then pull its way back to parts of central and south texas. this could be a major rainmaker. with that, there's really the potential of flooding over the next several days and into the latter half of the week. speaking of flooding, we have the chance of that occurring in the western great lakes and portions of the midwest. this area of low pressure, the frontal boundary and all the moisture from the gulf of mexico combined with daytime heating is going to give you a good chance of storms. we could have delays in chicago and perhaps st. louis before all is said and done. even some of the smaller regional airports in portions of nebraska and the dakotas and the twin cities. very dry in the desert southwest. showers are possible in florida with high temperatures. we wrap things up. 88 degrees in st. louis.

86 in washington, d.c. 82 in new york with sunshine. 94 in dallas. 98 in las vegas. 74 is your expected high in san francisco. that is a wrap on your forecast. let's send it back to the desk. >> reynolds, it is a great day to be inside. it is spectacular. >> if football is on, it is a great day. >> if we look out the window a bit, we can see daylight in our studio, which is nice. >> it is a beautiful thing. >> we'll take it. thank you. get this, i'm not sure i really like the next story. the pay gap between men and women, we found a place where the ladies have not just crossed the gap, they are way past it. they are making more money than the guys.

all right. some young women aren't just bridging the pay gap these days, they are shooting right past it pulling in way bigger paychecks than their male counterparts, but there's a catch. we are joined live from stephanie in new york. stephanie makes twice what i make in case anybody was wondering out there. >> yeah, right. that's why you are at the anchor desk in atlanta. >> i get paid with barbecues. >> is that it? well, it has nothing to do with us, jim, we are both over the age of 30. this has nothing to do with us particularly, but it does -- i did have to point that out. it is about unmarried women between the ages of 22 and 30 that don't have children.

they are outearning their male counterparts. they earn a median of $27,000 a year. that happens to be 8% more than what the men in that same demographic are making. so that's the difference here. the women are out earning men in 39 of the largest 50 cities, and they match their earnings in another eight cities. this is based on reach environmental study according to u.s. census data. where women have the biggest advantage, right there where you are, atlanta is number one. 21% wage event followed by memphis with 19%. maybe t.j. can tell us about that. he grew up not far from there. new york city, 17%. sacramento, 16%. these are the places where young women are doing better than their male counterparts. >> is it the economy? are guys more expensive, i can't imagine why that would be, but maybe we are. >> it is really about education. if you think about it, think back to college.

who were most of the people at college? mainly women. more women are going to college than men, and that is striving the change here. for every one or two men that graduates college, three women do. college graduates make $30,000 more than a high school graduate. you will see a lot of the industry is knowledge based and not part of manufacturing. the other thing to point out is that it has to deal with diversities because african-american women are going to school more than their counterparts in men. >> is there any place we are not seeing the reverse pay gap? >> oh, yeah. yes, there is. places with a lot of software technology, that's the basis of what's going on there. and the military. places like sill cohn valley, that's still all about the men. and the men are in charge there

and still making more than women. you don't have to completely cry about the story, jim. >> okay, i won't. as for the guy to girl ratio at college, i was focused on the books, stephanie. >> right. you didn't note that, right? not at all. >> that's what every guy says. >> thank you, lana. we appreciate it. we are chasing down the man known as the jihadist. his followers are sure to strike again. jamaica is closer to the u.s. and the middle east, but this is a concern for intelligence officials. it can get really complicated. not nearly as complicated as shipping it, though. i mean shipping is a hassle. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that is easy. best news i've heard all day! i'm soooo amped! i mean not amped. excited. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help? yeah.

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get listerine® smart rinse™. he is believing to be the inspiration behind richard reed, but you may never have heard of sheikh abdul until how.

last month drew griffin from the cnn special investigations unit we want to jamaica on sheikh's invite and came to find out it was a false invitation. yes. >> we came to get to know the jamaican on his own turf. and up a winding road to the jamaican hillside we climb where sheikh abdullah all faisal invited us. an interview to clear his name from an awful past. hello? we quickly learn sheikh al faisal was lying. he lured cnn to his island as part of the shakedown. cnn does not pay for interviews. the sheikh was asking for

$15,000 just to talk. why are you charges us so much money to talk to you. the 46-year-old jamaican was encouraging young fighters in somalia. and he was leading kenya to deport al-faisal back to jamaica. the caribbean and its poverty has long thought to be a potential for the terrorist message and the sheikh has not stopped preaching through internet chat rooms and tapes. the fear is that even isolated down that road in a home that this islam lick scholar, this preacher of radical islam could have an effect on the population here, gather a following and influence others to follow the path of the terrorists who followed him. it is the reason we came to the

island to interview faisal. he promised he would explain himself when we arrived. when we arrived, his new agent explained there would be no interview unless we paid $15,000. cnn does not pay for any interviews, but during three telephone conversations and one face-to-face meeting, the sheikh did try to explain how he was misinterpreted, but he said muslims should fight and kill jews, christians and hindus. that was the old sheikh he said, i have reformed since then. i'm just asking you, do you feel any guilt at all that the men listen to you and then went out and tried to kill people and some of them did kill people? do you feel guilt that they listen to you? i'm asking you a question. so you will not answer that question right now.

he says he won't do the interview unless he gets paid. he won't answer that question. there may be good reasons sheikh needs to be paid. he's socially and economically despised here. he has a religion called pagonism. the islamic council will not allow the sheikh to preach in any of jamaica's mosques until he denounces his radical teachings. >> i have not spoke to him not even for a minute since his return to jamaica. >> reporter: but that has not stopped the sheikh from peaching in homes around jamaica, gathering followers and around the internet. >> islam will rule america. >> reporter: it is the sheikh in an internet forum at the end of july titled the battle of washington.

he declares his law will once rule this country if muslims make sacrifice. >> if we want the white who is and desire to conquer the white house, we need to be people of hardship. i believe it is a matter of time before we will see the emir established in the white house. >> with more on the cleric of hate, drew, why is it that jamaica seems to be popping up on this alert for possible terrorism threats? >> well, counter terrorism officials have been worried about the caribbean for a long time, jim. and the fact that this guy has finally now -- remember, he caused trouble in india where he was jailed and went to kenya where he started the riots there or allegedly started the riots and was recruiting soldiers to go to somalia to fight. now he's basically been deported, exiled back to his

home country in jamaica, the fear is he could gather a following there and inspire those here in the west who a limited number follow his preachings on the internet. you can get this guy live seven days a week. >> and if he's isolated in jamaica, does that make him less of a threat, do you think? >> reporter: you would think so. but it is the message. osama bin ladin has been isolated in a cave for ten years or so. anwar al-la wicki is still out there somewhere. it is believed they are the aspiring force behind a lot of the would-be terrorists who take mare message directly or take it and misinterpret it to perform attacks. that's the fear counter terrorism officials have, and him being closer to the united

states where anybody can go and basically visit him, it is a bit of a concern. >> right. it is pretty incredible he would ask for $15,000 for an interview. it shows you this guy is not in touch with reality. >> reporter: he certainly wasn't in touch with our reality here in cnn. we wouldn't buy him a lunch let alone $15,000. but i think it did show his desperatism and he's being used by his handlers, but he invited us down there to do an interview to tell us he was a changed man. and it was the moment we touched down we got word that i thought we were being shaken down by this guy. >> drew, thank you. appreciate it. a friendly program reminder, be sure to watch drew's special investigative report on bin laden's new jihadists this saturday, september 11th, at 8:00 p.m. right here on cnn.

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all right. checking the top stories now. the president kicks off labor day week with trips to wisconsin and ohio to stump for the economy. this is less than two weeks before the midterm election, and he'll lay out a plan that includes extending a tax cut that is popular with business. the online classified service craigslist has shut down its adult services section. critics called it an easy way to access online prostitution. 17 attorney generals encouraged them to stop this trafficking. and hartz issued a recall of their real beef treats for dogs. they could be treated with salmonella. so far no reports of pets getting sick. 58 days until the midterm elections. the clock is ticking and the voters are ticked off. a new poll gives us an idea on what changes could be in store. that's coming up. ???????????????

all right. time now for a cnn politics update. 58 days until the midterm elections. the stakes are high and anger is building. this morning we have a better sense of how voters feel. and peter handry is out there with a poll that's crossing this morning, right? >> reporter: right. brand new poll topping the political ticker today. the generic bat ballot asking voters in your district, would you rather vote for a republican or democrat in november? republicans now have a seven-point advantage over democrats. that is bad news for the party

in power. that number has gone up three points since our last survey. and, you know, there's good news in here for republicans, but there could also be some good news for democrats because going back to last year, democrats have the edge in special elections. so democratic strategists here in d.c. believe that local races do matter. so democrats could have an edge if they localize the races. >> they have to play the game to know who wins. on the economy, which is the big issue out there across the country, some surprising news for the democrats, correct? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. voters still think that george w. bush owns this economy. by a significant margin. as you can see on the screen, when you ask voters who is to blame, bush and republicans have a 53-point advantage. the numbers also say if you ask voters, do republicans or democrats, who is at fall fault there?

when you put george bush's name in there, the numbers jump. expect the democrats to talk a lot about george w. bush. >> we are already hearing that the president may be unveiling new stimulus-like proposals today, but another person in his cabinet, hillary clinton, the secretary of state, is going to the middle east. that's also in our tick her? >> reporter: that's right. far away from the campaign trail. there's a primary here in many states on september 14th, but second tear of state hillary clinton will be going to jerusalem for a second round of peace talks between the palestinian authority and israel. >> and far away from the middle east, we won't interpret that to mean far away from iowa, new hampshire, states like that, there's been a lot of talk lately about whether or not hillary clinton -- it keeps coming up, it came up on "meet the press" yesterday, but i want to get back to the poll because one of the interesting things i saw at the very bottom of the poll that came out this morning, and i'm doing a series on tea

party candidates running for congress this year is that the negatives on the tea party have gone up. they are actually more unfavorable than they were back in january. i think it went up from 26% to 40%. does that mean that folks are getting more of a sense who the tea party is? >> reporter: it might be. i mean, perhaps that means that voters see more of the extreme side of the tea party rhetoric, but the core of the tea party is push back against government spending and you're seeing in this poll independent voters, those folks who may be sort of fed up with bigger government, they want lower taxes, those guys are starting to break to the gop. so it is a mixed bag with the pea tea party. >> and republicans like the enthusiasm factor coming out of the tea party because the voters are fired up and showing up in primary battle after primary battle, and they are going to show up this fall as well.

peter does a great job with tons of followers. thank you for joining us this morning, peter. thank you for breaking it down. >> reporter: thank you, jim. we'll be right back in a few moments. ( woman ) even my pizza place stores my information digitally.

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all right. let's go cross-country. the people in bell, california, ran off their city manager and police chief. now they are taking another step toward taking their town back. they are going door to door collecting signatures on a petition to recall the city council. it's the small l.a. county town where the median income is about $40,000 but its city manager was making nearly $800,000. the police chief nearly $500,000. they resigned after a loud protest and now citizens say the council's got to go, too. some members were making about $100,000 for their part-time work. >> it's not an expense. it's an investment in our community and in our future. so i think if we see it that way when it's well worth us doing it and better governance is priceless. >> we have to step up the city like we're not going to take it.

we have to do something about it. if we don't do anything about it, nobody going to, like, do something for us. >> reporter: the belle city council members took a drastic pay cut but refused to step down trig the recall. on the opposite end of the sfect rum, meet the may offer biloxi, mississippi. his city also faces a financial meltdown so he voluntarily cut his own salary from $115,000 to just $27,000. he talked about it earlier on "american morning" just a little while ago. >> is it going to change the way that you live? >> no it will not change the way i live. i don't live extravagant anyway. i'm pretty conservative guy. >> and i remember mayor holloway after katrina. he does earn his money. he'll make up the vast difference in his salary by dipping into his retirement money. let's look at what we're working on for the next hour of

"cnn newsroom." we begin with stephanie elam. >> we examine the state of your job. unfortunately, studies show the middle class is shrinking. we'll look at this new job market next hour. >> and we are kicking off the official beginning of the campaign season as we mark the unofficial end of summer. we're here in pennsylvania with the election express. strange thing happening here. they've been able to stay below the national unemployment rate but their unemployment rate is going up. hurricane earl is long gone but now we've got tropical storm h hermine. where is it headed? we'll let you know coming up next. the tropics are very active. we'll talk to you in a little bit. >> say it ain't so, reynolds. also ahead, a plan for peace and quiet by turning up the volume? you may not be able to pick

up on it. those noisy beeps are for young loiterers. is it another kind prove filing? we will be right back to explain in just a few moments. save. oh, it's not just today. with our free loyalty program, you earn great stuff like accident forgiveness and bigger discounts just by staying with us. oh! ooh! so, what you're saying is, it gets even better with age. oh! tell me we're still talking about insurance. rewarding loyalty. now, that's progressive. call or click today. somewhere in america, there's a doctor who can peer into the future. there's a nurse who can access in an instant every patient's past. and because the whole hospital's working together, there's a family who can breathe easy, right now. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest healthcare questions. and the over 60,000 people of siemens

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cnn's been reporting on innovative ways americans are trying to fix their schools. let's travel outside the u.s. to see what's happening in japan. it's a public school that is working out there. but it's run like a company. with the principal who is like a ceo and students who are like employees complete with 13-hour workdays. i can just hear the kid complaining already here in the united states. cnn's kyung la reports. >> reporter: the school day begins at the junior high with drills, math drills, as fast as these kids can do them. the theory here, train the brain with drills. much in n the same way puzzles may prevent dementia among the elderly. the principal believes it so much he joins his students.

school curriculum is the basics, plus lessons from real world business and community leaders to show kids where the basics will take them. revolutionary, for a japanese school system known for rigidity and formality. but shirota is not your average principal. he's not even a trained educator. his lack of experience in the setting is what led the setting to recruit him. >> principals are people who became teachers right after graduating from college, he says. that limits any outside the box thinking, he explains. he runs his school more like a corporation. students, his workers, and he keeps track of them. >> as you know, all the names of all the students. >> only name but also in the -- >> you know their test scores and their names? >> every single one?

>> all of them. >> he's different, said this student. more like a friend sometimes but still the boss. in the three years since shirota has been principal, the school claims higher test scores. the result, he believes, of a number of innovations. it's 6:40 in the innovation a e students are still here. this is an unusual move by this public school to try to boost its test scores. it's where i meet 15-year-old koya. we start at 7:00 p.m., nakimura explains. he's been in school since 8:00 in the morning and leaves at 9:30 at night. critics call this too tough for a public school, but shirota says the old must give way to new thinking and other educators in the country are taking note. the bottom line, says this former businessman if japan's corporations must adapt and compete in a global economy it only makes sense that, so, too,

must japan's schools. kyung lah, cnn, tokyo. millions of unemployed and underemployed americans have little to celebrate this labor day. and the future looks even bleaker for middle class workers. economists predict when job creation finally ramps up, higher paying professionals will find jobs. lower skilled workers will also be hired. but the people in the middle could be shut out with many of their jobs gone for good. check out these sobering stats. there are now 14,900,000 unemployed americans. more than 8 million jobs have been lost during the recession. but there are some bright spots. cnn's stephanie elam joins us from new york to examine the trend. it's not a good one, is it? >> reporter: no, it's really not a good one, jim, when you take a look at it this way. all around you think about it. the middle class is obviously the biggest one, but it's shrinking. most of the job growth that economists expect will be a low-paying, unskilled jobs and

in those high-paying skilled jobs. that means the midcell getting lost. take a look at the fastest growing jobs here. this is coming to us from the national employment law project. the number one growing job, retail salesperson. follow that up by a cashier. then food prep and that also includes fast food as well. those are the top three that we're talking about. what's the common thread among these jobs? they all pay, as you can see there, less than 10 bucks an hour. and the nelp says 76% of the jobs created this year were in these kind of low-paying jobs. on the other end of the spectrum, professional fields will pick up hiring. think about jobs like research scientists, software engineers, biomedical engineers and lawyers. and another study shows 23% of law firms plan to hire this winter. these are, obviously, jobs that require entry engs, more training. at the same time, once you get those jobs, they have a higher pay check, jim. >> is this a relatively new

phenomenon? what caused it? >> well, the change here is we no longer have an economy based on manufacturing. like what i was talking about with you before about the gender pay gap with the younger americans. they believe manufacturing jobs are going to continue to be outsoursd. that's not going to continue to be the place. some of those manufacturing jobs that were lost during the recession are not expected to come back. but it's not just happening in manufacturing. you have real estate. you have construction. financial services. all these jobs where a lot of them lost a lot of jobs and these days, those fields aren't bringing back very many workers. and those were good paying middle class jobs we're talking about. but then you have other analysts who were saying this shift is not a permanent one. lower paying and temporary jobs typically do come back first in a recovery which makes sense. what we're going to have to do to see if this trend sticks. right now it looks really difficult on a lot of middle class americans out there. >> it sure does. stephanie elam, thanks very much. we begin counting down to

the midterm elections. we'll look at the extraordinary passions building among american voters. many are angry and they're motivated to vote. they will have their chance to make big changes in washington. 37 senate seats are up for grabs and in the house, of course, every single seat will be decide. 435 in all the stakes are huge for lawmakers and for you. your job, your taxes, as stephanie was just talking about. even your health care could be shaped by the outcome of the november elections. president obama is hoping to create jobs and save the jobs of endangered congressional democrats at the same time with a new economic plan. the president is rolling out his initiatives this week with speeches today in wisconsin and wednesday in ohio and our cnn senior white house correspondent ed henry is here with a preview. hi, ed. >> the stakes are enormous for the meaner people, enormous for this president as well. could be a make or break week. these two big speeches today in milwaukee. new details about what the president is going to say. he's going to talk a lot about infrastructure spending. he's going to lay out what the

white house is billings a comprehensive plan. try to create some jobs specifically when you look through the numbers. he wants to talk about rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, constructing 4,000 miles of rail, airport runways, hopefully hoping they'll be in this $50 billion plan a lot of jobs created along the way. still needs congressional approval, of course. there's a narrow window with lawmakers still on break right now. they'll be coming back next week. but then quickly heading back to the campaign trail. it's unclear whether this will actually pass. then on wednesday in cleveland, the president wants to roll out a $100 billion tax credit permanently extending the tax cut that companies get for research and development. the idea encouraging companies to invest more in equipment, invest more in employees, hire more people, et cetera. but these tworp ingredients, targeted tax credits slarkss highway infrastructure spending that we heard about last year in the big stimulus plan. now the president's got sort of a second economic plan.

he's going to roll out this week. obviously, a lot of people have heard about the stimulus and still are unclear as to whether it's really trickled down and helped them. it's unclear whether the president is going to get this through congress, let alone whether it will really have an impact on the economy, jim. >> i can just hear the folks inside the white house saying, don't call this the second stimulus. i'm sure we'll be -- >> you're right. they have probably learned some lessons about branding. when they first billed the first stimulus as something that was going to jolt the economy, that has not quite panned out and then this summer they call it recovery summer theatbeginning. that has not panned out either. so you're right. this is also an expectations game ratcheting that down. in fairness to the white house, there have been government reports, private economists like mark zand sle. outside the administration suggesting that the stimulus has helped save or create something like 3 million jobs. that's, obviously, positive. certainly better than nothing. it's had some impact, but maybe

not as much impact as americans anticipated. at least in how the administration first sold it. >> ed henry at the white house. thanks, ed. appreciate it. the cnn election express is on the road far outside the d.c. beltway. we're talking to real people about what's driving them to the polls and the message they want to send to washington. first stop is pittsburgh and cnn's t.j. holmes joins us live. t.j., i can't believe they are talking about anything out there besides steeler football. >> yeah, they got a situation going on with steeler football, no doubt about it. yes, they want to talk about that. once we get that out of the way, they certainly move on and move on quickly to the economy. i want people to keep something in mind today. it's a three-day weekend. it's labor day. you are spending time with family and friends and, yes, that's what often these weekends are about. at the same time, a lot of people are thankful to have a day off, a lot of people would love to be working today. you gave those numbers early ber the almost 15 million people right now out of work who would love to be working.

so keep that in mind on this labor day. we're here in pittsburgh. a state that has been blessed in some ways to keep its unemployment rate below the national average. but at the same time it continues to tick up. we are out here speaking to a lot of people. expressing their concerns about the economy moving forward with the politics in washington as well. can you imagine, a couple we ran into, can you imagine doing the same thing for 50 years but now be considering the possibility of giving it up because you simply just can't make money doing it anymore because of the economic times? that's what we ran into. listen to these two. >> we are 200 head altogether. it's hard to maintain your business. property values are getting high. >> we like the farm. we like the country. we like taking kafr our animals and working long hours. but you don't make any money at it. the price of milk is not anywhere near what it costs to

operate. >> it doesn't never change. doesn't make any difference which party is in office. this one controls the judiciariy. it's the same ping the republicans gorg gain. i don't think they're going to gain as much as they think. they always vote against the incumbents. give them another chance to get rich. they need to stop yelling at each other and get down business to. yelling at each other ain't going to solve anything. i'm tired of the yelling, hollering and screaming. they don't want to work together, tell them to get all new guys in there. >> and you hear him there, jim. it's so disheartening to hear it. been watching politics for a long time. he doesn't expect anything to change. he doesn't expect any help. he doesn't expect relief. he expects the same old deadlock. he essentially given up on the process in washington so he's having to do for himself and fend for himself. one more thing, jim, on the numbers i talked about. over the past year, the nation's unemployment rate has been essentially flat each other more as ticked down a bit. over the past year. conversely here in pennsylvania,

their number has stayed below the national average but in the past year it's gone up a full percentage point. so it seems to be going the wrong direction right now, jim. >> and t.j., i mean, one of the things we have to talk about is these congressional races out there in western pennsylvania. that's a conservative part of the state. could those races determine, you know, which way the house goes in the fall? >> yeah, we think about the house. 435 seats up in the air, yes. so how would republicans take the house back? they're going to do it by focusing on several seats -- specific seats around the country like the one here in pennsylvania at least, western pennsylvania. we're keeping our eye on here as well where you have in the third district, a freshman democrat in a republican district. that is prime for the taking and republicans' eyes at least. that one, along with several other around the country, they need to make some gains. almost 40 seats. a lot of people give them credit for 25, 30, but 40 could

possibly be in the works as well. here in western pennsylvania, a lot of eyes nationally on this particular race. but also it is a very, very local race. those candidates don't necessarily want to talk about what's happening in washington. they want to talk about local issues and see if they can hold on to this seat. kathy delkemper is the name, the democrat trying to hold on to that seat. she's getting quite all she can handle right now from a mike riley, the republican challenging her right now. >> a lot of democrats in red sdricts all over the country right now, not just in pennsylvania, who are going to be in a lot of trouble this fall if they can't get things turned around. t.j. holmes out in pittsburgh, pennsylvania with the cnn election express. good to see you. >> keep an eye on the cnn election express. it will be on the road this week in four states with members of the best political team in television on board. jessica yellin, john king, gloria borgeer, t.j. holmes and

dana bash. wednesday the cnn express rolls into kofgton, kentucky, where there are some pretty contentious races happening down there. and then over to indianapolis where another key senate race is on the line. so stay with us for all of that. now movie ining on to the p in the southern california town of bell. they are taking matters into their own hands. talk about angry voters. check this out. they are going door to door with a petition to recall their city council. their entire city council. and it's a new day. a new storm to talk about. this is tropical storm hermine. coming up, i'll let you know if this will steer out deeper into the gulf and get stronger or if it's just going to roll right onshore. we'll let you know coming up. what i wouldn't do for a do-over. [ female announcer ] neutrogena® clinical skincare, exclusive ion2 complex combined with activating cream helps restore collagen depleted skin.

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and they are getting up and standing up out in california where our cross-country trek begins this morning with people going door to door, petition in hand to recall their city council. the bell payroll scandal revealed city workers making outrageous salaries, up to $800,000 a year in this economy. and a place where the median income is around $40,000 a year. they were pressured to help the money make cars by impounding cars and charging high fees to get them back. hartz has issued a recall of the naturals real beef treats for dogs after finding out they could be tainted with salmonella. so far no, reports of any dogs getting sick. the coast guard rescued seven people trapped. the three adults and four children spent nearly a full day in the water. luckily, all of them were wearing their life vests. a coast guard helicopter was making one final pass after a six-hour search when a crew member spotted them in the

moonlight. a big reminder to wear your life vest when out there on the water this weekend, folks. and forget earl or fiona. folks on the south texas gulf coast have tropical storm hermine to contend with. is that how we're pronouncing it? >> yes. >> enroreynolds wolf has more o this. >> doesn't matter how it's pronounced, as long as it doesn't do a lot of damage. >> absolutely. pretty easy to see. the yucatan peninsula on this side. the mexican coast, texas coastline. just really deep convection at this point. this is pretty impressive. if this system were able to stay over the open water for several days it might percolate into something bigger. it may be hurricane. at this point, looks like it's not going to be out over the open water. it's expected to make landfall some time into tuesday. in fact, the latest forecast we have for the national hurricane center, indicates it might make landfall just south of the texas/mexico border with winds

around 60 miles per hour and gusts up to 70. that's a pretty strong tropical storm but not expected to get any bigger. once it comes onshore it will weaken. it will still be a significant rainmaker. flooding is a real possibility for north and central and south texas, especially as we make your way through the rest of the week and into the weekend. sustained winds currently 45, gusting to 50. certainly something to watch out for. we mentioned flooding. there'ding a possibility anywhere else around the country? looks like it might be today. especially where you have this area of low pressure and frontal boundaries coming together. you get really moist air that continues to surge. it's going to interact with that low. that combined with daytime heating could give strong storms. you can't rule out the possibility of isolated tornadoes popping up, especially into the afternoon. any delays, any spots you plan on flying out of the midwest. perhaps twin cities, perhaps smaller regional airports into this area, you might have a few

delays. something else, not delays but snow flakes in the central and northern rockies, including yellowstone national park and glacier national park. hard to believe we're already back into the time of year we're talking about snow back into the forecast. if your going out doing longboarding, waves are coming in in sets two of. eastern seaboard, some issues in places in terms of rip currents. that may be a problem for many of you out toward virginia beach, ocean city and the florida coastline is going to be an issue, too. but also by the afternoon. scattered showers and storms might cause delays and any picnics. keep that in mind. in terms of your temperatures it's going to be a sizzling day in parts of the desert southwest. in new york, another day. highs back into the 80s once again. enjoy it while you can. that's the latest. back to you, jim. looks like a great weather forecast for a big part of the country. we're glad for that. appreciate it. >> a new medical study is giving teens what they want.

a reason to sleep in like they need another reason. researchers say starting school later improves performance in the classroom. and we'll find out more in just a few moments. with so many to choose from it's hard to see the difference. but this is the way most dent. fact is, more dentists brush with an oral-b toothbrush than any other brush. ♪ if you could see what your dentist sees, you'd reach for an oral-b toothbrush too. oral-b. there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight?

if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested. up to 2,000 more troops may be going to afghanistan in the coming weeks. a number of u.s. forces would deploy as part of the nato call-up.

the troops would help train afghan forces and disable roadside bombs. president obama makes a foush get the economy going. he has speeches today and wednesday and plans to roll out tax cut and infrastructure proposeals. and the mafs blowout preventer from the broken bp is l is on its way to a nasa falt. they'll look for clues to the cause of the april explosion. bp plans to resume work this week to seal the damaged well for good. it's no secret most teens hate the mornings. sleeping a bit later might help them do better in school. we are talking about a new study on all of that. that's coming up next.

now might think there are a few things tougher than ghaith sleepy teen out of bed and off to school. don't blame it on their attitude. blame it on their biology. elizabeth cohen tells us about a new study that suggests starting school a bit later could help teens do better in the classroom. >> it's 5:22 in the morning and 16-year-old rene carascilla is already gipth for school. a junior in auburn, georgia, his bus comes at 6:20. the first bell at 7:25. >> yeah, 6:15. >> rene's parents say he's not getting enough sleep. >> his normal bedtime is around 11:00 and then he wakes up around 5:00, so he gets about six hours. >> reporter: doctors say teens need nine hours of sleep. rene says that's never going to happen. >> nine hours of sleep? i don't think that's possible for high school if you have to get up at 5:00 or 6:00. that means you are going to be

in bed by 8:00 or 9:00. i'm not trying to be in bed by 8:00 or 9:00. about 80% of high school students are sleep deprived. so why don't they just stop playing video games and go to bed earlier? teen sleep expert judith owens says don't blame the teens. she says they are biologically programmed to stay up later. >> there clearly is a shift in adolescence to a natural bedtime and wake time being two or even three hours later than it was when they were, say in elementary school. >> she wants high schools to consider starting later. she did a study at st. george's school in rhode island where they delayed school start time by 30 minutes. and the results were stunning. kid were much more alert. >> what we learned and what we saw was so overwhelmingly positive that i think all of us were probably taken a little bit back by that. starting school later actually got kids to bed earlier. and we think that was in large part because, by virtue of them

being better rested, they were able to be more efficient and get their work done. >> reporter: emory university sleep expert dr. david schullman says starting high school before 8:30 a.m. is short changing students and endangering their overall health. >> it's asking for trouble. they'll be sleep deprived and have poor academic performance. >> reporter: rene's parents would love it if school started later and their son could get even just a few more precious minutes of sleep. >> if you have more sleep then you can be a better athlete, a better student. you can do everything more productive because you are functioning better on better sleep. >> only 1 in 5 adolescents gets nine hours of sleep a night. experts consider that the right amount they need. but guess this. 9 in 10 parents think their kid is snoozing just enough. the politics of anger. a tea party candidate mounts a challenge to the most powerful democrat in the senate.

some say her blustery comments have gone too far. my conversation with sharron angle coming up. ♪ [car horn honks] our outback always gets us there... ... sometimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪

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today we begin our countdown to the midterm elections and the voter anger that could prove sdis pitch the tea party has tapped into that voter frustration but the public is largely divide on the opinion of the movement. then latest cnn polling shows 36% have favorable views. only 40% unfavorable views and nearly one in four americans simply aren't sure about what to think about this movement. and one big question facing the tea party is whether or not contenders who are backed by the conservative movement are too conservative to beat their democratic opponents. it's a question that's dogged sharron angle who is out to take down the most powerful democrat in the senate, harry reid. >> we need to take our government back. i say harry reid yoourks fired. >> reporter: sharron angle may be the tea party's biggest gamble yet. she doesn't mind popping on the back of a harley. angle has a tendency to shoot from the lip.

>> he's been waterboorgd our economy for over a year now. >> reporter: with rhetoric like that, angle came out of nowhere and snatched up the endorsements of tea party leaders, including sarah palin and won the republican nomination in the race for u.s. senate. her next opponent, the gop's prime target. >> would you like to see him go away? >> actually, i'd like to dump him. >> reporter: one of the most powerful democrats, senator majority leader harry reid. >> will you be a tea party senator? >> i don't know what that means. i'll be a main stream senator. >> reporter: democrats say ang cell far from main stream pointing to her past calls to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government by getting rid of the departments of education and energy, the epa and the irs. she's also made some white-hot comments on talk radio. >> but this congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those second amendment remedies. they are saying, my goodness, what can we do to turn this

country around. and i'll tell you. the first thing we need to do is take harry reid out. >> what was all that about? >> those are not the issues that people are really concerned about. they are concerned about our homes. our economy, our jobs. that's what they are concerned about. >> reporter: in another interview, she agreed there are domestic enemies in the government. >> we have home-born, homegrown enemies in our system and i for one i think we have some of those enemies in the own -- in the walls of the senate and the congress. >> yes, i think you are right, bill. >> do you feel there are domestic enemies in the congress? >> the larger focus of that conversation was what has happened domestically here in our country for the last 18 months. >> do you feel that the president or harry reid are enemies of the -- >> i don't think anybody mentioned any names during that conversation. and, of course, those weren't my words. >> whose policies were you talking about. >> those weren't my words. >> we need to phase medicare and social security out. >> reporter: her comments on social security now star in

reid's ads. she accuses reid of taking her out of context. >> as we're conversationally speaking, sometimes when you pick out words, they're not the best words that you could have used. >> ma many in her own party worry ang cell a risky bet. a recent poll found 71% of nevada republicans prefer a different candidate. good thing for angle, says las vegas political columnist john rolston, reid is just as unpopular. >> harry reid is the most negatively viewed person in this state. there's hardened opposition to him. i think sharron angle could be arrested on a felony tomorrow and she'd still get 40% of the vote. we also caught up with senator reid who stands by his ads that paint angle as extreme. >> she says that a lot of what she said was taken out of context. what is your response to that? >> it's a little hard to take out of context somebody said they want to phase out social security, get rid of medicare. her words are what she is.

my words are what i am. so i don't think you can run from what you say and what you do. >> reporter: a political wild card in the tea party's rise to power, sharron angle has two more months to convince voters to deal her in. >> one person who is closely watching the nevada senate vase rick sanchez. rick has a new book out called "conventional idiocy." we got it right here. i'm in atlanta where you usually are and you are in new york where i sometimes spend some time. we'll talk about the book in a moment. this whole tea party phenomenon. we've watched this over the last 18 months since president obama has been in office. they are fueled by anger. a healthy dose of social media, something you know a whole lot about. what are your thoughts about the tea party movement and their impact on the elections this fall. >> well, there's no question that the tea party movement has been brilliant in its adaptation of social media. i write about that in my book. it's one of the phenomenons we've seen coming about in politics and the merge of social

media and regular media and quite a long time. what tea party unfortunately has to be careful about or those people who are true to the tea party's beliefs, which is a smaller government, less taxes, for example is not to be co-opted and by co-opting i mean when you have a big group of people out there who are caring and who are motivated and who are engaged, all of a sudden you're going to get someone as you can see in some of the interviews and some of the things i write about in my book, people like health care companies. rick scott, the interview that i did with him. >> oh, yeah. i remember that one. >> you're going to have different organizations that will come in there and say here's a great group of people. let's use them to meet our ends, rather than america's ends. that's the problem with any organization like that. >> and so a big part of your book is about politics. it's about social media. i got to ask you though. where did the title conventional idiocy come from. i said there's a story behind

this. >> of course there is. you are absolutely right. the idea is, and it's quite simple, that, you know, we've always been told about what the conventions are. what we think is you, know, the conventional thinking and that word that we use in media, conventional wisdom. once you throw conventional wisdom out there, people think they have to know what they are talking about. those are the experts, the pundits. >> they are wrong a lot of times. >> they're on all the time. they tell you to what the truth is. if you look just beneath the surface, often times it's not the truth. oftentimes it's actually idiocy. that's why we break it down. the subheading is why the new america is sick of old politics. and what we want to do with this book is show how, if americans -- jim, and you know this. americans are very engaged out there. maybe now more than they've been in a long time. but they have a tough time finding an outlet. so the idea is with social

media, with twitter, facebook, myspace, people are coming together and they are calling out these politicians. and these media pundits and demagogues and saying, no, you are full of it. and they are having real conversations. people joke a lot about twitter. one of the reasons i love wait toer is because twitter forces you to engage in a conversation. you get 140 characters. you can't do a lot. >> i wanted to ask you about twitter. rick, you oar you are synonymous with twitter. "rick's list," your show is very much about this new phenomenon. this amazing website that everybody is addicted to now. i am just starting to get addicted to it. and my producer tells me sometimes you got to get off of that thing. how did you get to embrace twitter? when did that idea pop sdo into your head? ah-ha. i've got to do something with this. this has got some legs. >> it works for me, and i write about this in my book. look. i didn't grow up as a northeast

establishment guy. i am -- look. >> you were born in cuba. >> i grew up poor. i grew up in cuba. i failed first grade. my teachers thought i was mentally retarded. sometimes my wife thinks they're right. all this stuff has been written and said about me in -- so i relate, jim in many ways. i relate in many ways to average people more than i do people who are powerful or famous or rich, et cetera. so social media fit me when i started reaching out and talking to people. and what i found is that i was able to connect to people out there and what it gave me was empowerment. i have 140,000 people who are my editors who tell me when i'm right, when i'm wrong, when something is working for me. i mean, it's quite a fun ride. and i think in the end, i dedicate this book to the people

on social media because i think if we connect, we can change the world. >> wow. well, rick sanchez, host of "rick's list" and author of the new book "conventional idiocy." i love the title of that book. it's the kind of title that will grab people's attention when they go through the bookstore. especially with summer winding down, they might be able to squeeze in one more book. check it out. appreciate your time, rick. >> hey, my pleasure. my pleasure. it's a fun book. i had a good time doing it. it's a combination of my personal experiences and there's some really interesting stuff to go through in there. and then the politics and then the social media. but all three work out very well. thanks, jim. >> hell of a life story. appreciate it. thanks so much. speaking of the web, we've been talking about the web. this is a totally different subject. the world wide web is now shrinking for people looking for sex online. we're talking about craigslist. and some changes being made there. and we're going to be back in just a quick minute. i want a home run.jols ]

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checking top stories now. officials in chile say they will drill -- they will set up an oil drill as a third option to rescue those 33 miners who have been trapped underground for a month now. this plan could be the fastest of the three rescue options. hartz has issued a voluntarily recall of nearly 75,000 bags of dog treats. they found salmonella in some of the samples. and craigslist has closed down its adult services section. they called it an easy way to access online prostitution ads. 17 attorneys general urged them to do so. they also encouraged human trafficking and saults on women. washington is looking at a different way to fight crime. the weapon is noise. it's stirring up criticism, though. we'll have more on that in just a few moments.

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time for a cnn equals politics update. 57 days until americans vote in the midterm elections. and the financial worries of americans are showing up in the latest cnn/opinion research poll. 8 in 10 americans feel economic conditions right now are poor. 44% of the poll respondents blame republicans for the economic mess. 35% say democratic policies got us to this point and 16% blame both parties equally. paul steinhausser joins us from the cnn election express in the bus. it's getting crowded in there. >> there's going to be way too

many big names. i'm getting out of here. seriously, no. >> hope you brought snacks. >> hey, you were just talking about our poll. brand new on the ticker this morning, let's dig a little deeper. earlier this hour you were talking about the overall number in the battle for congress. the generic ballot. the republicans had a seven-point advantage. that's up from four points from just last month. let's dig deeper. take a look at this. just independents alone. independent voters and where they stand. right now, our new poll indicates that independents are swinging for republicans by a 32% advantage. that's a jump from just last month. why do independents matter? they are the voters in the middle that can swing either way. last two elections they swung for the democrats. if they swing for the republicans this time, that's trouble for democrats. >> it is trouble for democrats. i'm also struck by this poll number. it may be the most important poll number. it's just my 37b but the fact that americans, according to this new poll, blame the republicans for economic

conditions more so than democrats and president obama and the democrats have controlled washington for 18 months now. >> yeah, they control the white house. they control congress. we are seeing some deterioration on the number. people still blame the republicans more than democrats. i gerks obviously, the recession started under president bush. but the flip side to that is, it's not that they think the democrats are doing any better job on the economy right now than the republicans. it's so crucial today. joe biden, the vice president, will be next door, the neighboring state from here, ohio. he'll be talking at a labor group about the economy and why does ohio matter? there's a lot of policy there but politics as well. ohio has a high unemployment rate and a lot of seats in the house. and the governorship the democrats are trying to hang on. >> pennsylvania is important. not only the joe sestak/pat toumi race but individual house races which could potentially help the republicans swing the

house to their side. >> oh, yeah. there's about four or five seats here the republicans think they can win back. dana bash and jessica yellin both out covering races near this state. you'll hear a lot more about that today on the ticker and right here on cnn. >> and speaking of all that anger out there and people blaming both sides, both republicans and democrats, i was also struck by the poll number you got on the tea party movement. i noticed at the very bottom of some of the poll numbers there that americans have a slightly more unfavorable view of the tea party movement than they did earlier this year and way more unfavorable than they did, say, eight months ago. that is interesting. >> it is. you've seen a jump there. among republicans, the tea party movement is very, very favorable. but among the total electorate, not nearly as much. one reason may be the tea party movement is getting involved in politics in primary politics. and that may be turn something people off, jim. maybe. >> right. and as you have noted and as

we've noted, many tea party candidates out there are republican, if not all tea party candidates throughout republican. there may be some democrats. some democratic leaning independents who are saying if that's what it's about, i'm going to be against the tea party. but great stuff in that poll this morning. lots of news there. of course, you'll be following it. our whole political team will be following it for the next couple of months. so it's going to be busy times ahead. appreciate it. >> thanks, jim. take a listen. this could be the new tool for the law. doesn't sound like much. i can barely hear it. and that's probably -- there's a reason why. it has a lot to do with the gray hairs on my head. if you are under 25 years old, this annoying noise can drive you crazy. some officers hope it will be a good crime deterrent. we'll explain what kaufl this means coming up. rage in america including a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty.

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and it is the how that will make all the difference. rheumatoid arthritis going? they're discovering the first self-injectable ra medicine you take just once a month. it's simponi™, and taken with methotrexate, it helps relieve the pain, stiffness, and swelling of ra with one dose a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi™ can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems, and allergic reactions. before starting simponi™, your doctor should test you for tb and assess your risk of infections, including fungal infections and hepatitis b. ask your doctor if you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, or develop symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores.

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kyra is going to show you how easy it is to honor a fallen hero. >> every day in our newscast, we honor our fallen heroes from iraq and afghanistan. we do it by partnering with cnn.com. matter of fact, we're in their newsroom today. it's called "home and away." you are probably familiar with it. katie hawkins is one of the cnn dotcomers who got involved in putting this all together. why did you want to do this "home and away" project. >> about six years ago, we started collecting the names and photos of troops that have fallen in iraq and afghanistan. and as the list continued to grow, we knew we wanted to create a place where we could have all these names of the fallen soldiers and also a place where loved ones could share their tributes. and that's how home and away was created. >> and the stories are so emotional. loved ones and friends and comrades. >> it's been amazing. we've had such a good reaction to the project and every story you see, whether it's from a

daughter or an old college roommate or even somebody in the town who never even met this soldier. each story is different. our ultimate goal is to get a story for every single soldier. >> oh, my gosh. that would be thousands. >> that's our goal, too. >> let's show our viewers how easy it is to logon and submit a way to honor a hero. >> first you go to cnn.com/homeandaway. and you are taken here to the main page. you have two tabs here. afghanistan and iraq. if you are looking for a soldier who died in either of these countries, you just search for their name. let's see. their profile will pop up and there's a place where you can share memories and messages. and in this case, this is a soldier that doesn't have any memories or messages. i'm sure he has family members out there who just don't know

about this project yet. >> so the names and pictures are in there. and you can just go in and add comments. >> right. just click this button. share memories with ireport and you can share photos and videos here or just share a comment. a memory about this soldier. it's really easy and then it will show up on that page. >> and what kind of response do you get from spouses, parents, friends, because they always follow-up with us and say it meant so much to see them highlighted on cnn. >> they are just grateful to have a place where they can share their memories and that their loved ones will be remembered forever. >> that's great. katie, thank you so much. once again, we want to ask all of you just to logon to cnn.com/homeandaway and tell us about your hero. we promise to keep their memory alive. and it dominated mine. i honestly loved smoking,

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a busy washington, d.c., mall has a new device to chase away loiterers. critics claim it unfairly targets young people. >> reporter: this is a very popular place among young people because of all the trendy bars and restaurants like these down here. there's also been a problem with loiterers and property managers have complained about that. a couple of weeks ago there was a huge street brawl that took place. we're told it started down here in this metro station and kind of spilled over on to the streets. since that time, property

managers around here in installed this device up on the wall. it's called the mosquito. it emits a high-pitched sound designed to keep loiterers away. but the question is, does it unfairly target young people? it can cause a high pitched headache. and that's by design. just outside the gallery place subway stop in washington, the mosquito beeps often. but is it indiscriminate. this anti-loitering device was placed here after a big street brawl. but the property managers and the mosquitoes' distributor both tell cnn the noisemaker doesn't target young people. still, the distributor says teenagers happen to do the most loitering. and he says the sound is most effective for the stage of life when humans can hear the highest pitches. >> the mosquito when activated emits a sound at 17.5 kill hertz which is at the high end of the youth hearing range. 13 to 25-year-old hearing range.

when a youth hears the sound, they find it extremely annoying and will leave the area in a few minutes. >> at gallery place, we saw some young people getting irritated. >> can you hear it? >> probably wouldn't shop at any of these shops if i 3rd again. >> why? >> it's too annoying. it gave me a headache. >> there are settings on the mosquito that can be heard by older age groups. i played the sound off a computer in our newsroom near several people in their 20s, 30s and older. i didn't tip them off beforehand. on settings for people 25, 30, 35 and younger, no one reacted. then -- >> we're going to play a setting now for people 50 years old and under. >> oh, i heard that. i can hear that, too. still, some believe this device does target teenagers unfairly. >> among the community leaders who have concerns about this device, judith s